At a moment when Quebecers thought the mood couldn’t be more venomous between student protesters and the government, events degenerated once again Friday.

A demonstrator throws a rock towards the police line during a student demonstration outside the Montreal Convention Centre against hikes to university and college tuition fees.

Published on Fri Apr 20 2012

MONTREAL—Unusually violent clashes with police, projectiles thrown at highway vehicles, an apparently hacked government website, and a joke by Premier Jean Charest about it all that some thought in bad taste.

At a moment when Quebecers thought the mood couldn’t be more venomous between student protesters and the government, events degenerated once again Friday.

Protesters, primarily those raging over planned hikes to college and university tuition, showed up at Montreal’s convention centre, where hundreds of business people were gathered to hear Charest vaunt his “North Plan,” a major mining and natural resource development strategy in the province’s north.

They pounded on the centre’s multicoloured windows and picketed the entrances. Then about 150 found their way inside and Charest’s speech was delayed.

Shortly after noon, police declared the demonstration illegal and moved to disperse those inside and outside the centre.

Things degenerated from there, leading to at least 12 arrests and four injuries. At least three police officers were hurt, none seriously.

Glass windows and doors at the convention centre were smashed. Montreal police confronted protesters who hurled pieces of pavement at them. They called for backup from the Sûreté du Québec.

Other protesters also threw construction materials or used them to block police from chasing after them, while police used batons, chemical irritants, and even rubber bullets on the demonstrators.

A Montreal Police Service spokesperson said that while police are used to demonstrations in Montreal — there are many each year — at this one protesters didn’t back down from police. They surrounded and charged at them.

“When you see people coming to a protest wearing a bicycle helmet, ski goggles and a mask, you know they don’t have peaceful intentions,” the spokesperson said.

One protestor could be seen wearing a vintage army helmet and carrying a pickaxe, adorned in the red felt square symbolizing the student movement.

Nicolas Moran, a 21-year-old law student at the Université du Québec à Montréal, was one of the students who had earlier managed to get into the building.

“I wasn’t doing anything violent,” said Moran, who had a gash on his forehead. “A police officer hit me over the head . . . But I doubt the education minister will denounce violence from police.”

By mid-afternoon the violence had escalated. Protesters moved toward the financial district. Doors and windows at the World Commerce Centre were broken. The windows at a bank were also smashed. A mailbox was hurled into the street.

Before 3 p.m., police warned citizens on Twitter that people were throwing “projectiles” on to the Autoroute Ville-Marie. No one was hurt and no vehicles were hit, police confirmed later.

At about 3 p.m., people trying to access the Quebec Ministry of Education’s website were met with a message in bold letters: “We are ashamed of our government.” The message stayed up on the apparently hacked site for 10 minutes before the site was taken down.

Meanwhile, as he began his delayed speech inside the convention centre, Charest evidently thought humour was in order.

The event, he was, was “very popular. People are running from everywhere to get in.

“It’s a chance, notably for job seekers,” he continued, smiling, now barely able to contain himself. “Those who are knocking at our door this morning, we can offer them a job — in the North, as many as possible.”

His jokes elicited laughter from his audience, but student protesters, tens of thousands of whom have been boycotting classes in a strike for more than two months, weren’t amused.

Gabriel Dubois-Nadeau, spokesperson for the biggest striking student group, called CLASSE, said Charest was “laughing in the face” of students, and that any appeal for calm he’s making would be useless if Charest acts like that.

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